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The shopping journey has never been more transformed: what once began in crowded malls and print flyers now unfolds across screens, apps and AI-powered discovery.
No wonder the 2025 holiday shopping season is unfolding in a time of digital acceleration. Consumers today are more price-aware yet increasingly influenced by AI-powered recommendations and seamless online experiences. From TikTok-inspired discovery to personalized marketplace deals, buying behavior is becoming smarter and faster.
But, what does this mean for ecommerce sellers? It’s a season of new challenges and opportunities. Rising order volumes, tighter margins, and new AI-driven buying patterns demand smarter operations.
With the right automation tools, you can handle higher volume without added stress by automating accounting, syncing inventory in real time, and gaining clear visibility into true profitability.
In this blog, we’ll uncover the biggest holiday shopping trends of 2025, highlight how AI is reshaping online buying, and share data-driven insights to help brands scale smarter this season.
The 2025 holiday season is defined by a central paradox: overall spending is at an all-time high, but individual shopper caution is, too. Here are the top-line trends:
A detailed breakdown of the data, from 2024's final numbers to 2025's biggest forecasts.
The 2025 holiday season will be defined by record highs, earlier starts, and sustained digital momentum:
1. $241.4B: U.S. Nov–Dec 2024 online sales.
2. 3.7% - 4.2%: Projected YoY growth for total U.S. holiday retail sales in 2025.
3. +5.3%: Projected YoY growth for online U.S. holiday sales in 2025.
4. +8.7%: Actual YoY growth for online U.S. holiday sales (2024 vs 2023).
5. $994.1 Billion: Actual total U.S. holiday retail sales in 2024.
US ecommerce holiday sales saw steady growth from 2020 ($192.6B) to 2023 ($244.86B), with 2024 sales totaling $241.4B.
Five days that account for nearly one-fifth of the entire holiday season.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday remain the twin peaks of holiday commerce, but the entire five-day stretch from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday drives massive volume:
6. $6.1B (+8.8%): Thanksgiving Day 2024 online spend.
7. $10.8B (+10.2%): Black Friday 2024 online spend.
8. $10.9B (+5.8%): Weekend (Sat–Sun) 2024 online spend.
9. +14.6% YoY: Black Friday 2024 U.S. online sales.
10. +0.7% YoY (SpendingPulse): Black Friday 2024 in-store.
11. $15.8M per minute (8–10 pm): Peak Cyber Monday 2024 spend.
12. 197 million: Number of U.S. shoppers who participated in Cyber Week 2024.
Mobile continues to dominate holiday traffic, driving the majority of sales from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday and serving as the primary shopping channel for younger consumers.
13. 57%: Sales via mobile ($7.6B; +13.3% YoY) on Cyber Monday 2024.
14. 54.5%: Smartphones drove online purchases in the holiday season 2024.
15. 70%: Share of U.S. and global Cyber Week orders made on mobile devices.
16. 63%: Cyber Monday 2024 online shoppers used mobile (self-reported).
17. 33% → 57%: Growth in Cyber Monday mobile share from 2019 to 2024.
18. 65% - Mobile's share of Christmas Day online sales in 2024, up from 63% in 2023.
19. 89%: Share of Gen Z shoppers who make Black Friday purchases on mobile.
20. 3.3%: Mobile conversion rate on Black Friday 2024.
Flexible payments are no longer optional; they're driving nearly $20 billion in holiday sales.
Buy Now, Pay Later became a genuine force in holiday commerce:
21. 13.3B: Consumers spent during Cyber Monday 2024.
22. 75.2%: Cyber Monday BNPL transactions happened on mobile.
23. $18.2B (+9.6%): Representing $1.6 billion more BNPL spend than the last season.
24. +11%: Projected YoY growth for BNPL-driven spending in Holiday 2025.
25. $991.2 Million: BNPL-driven spending on Cyber Monday 2024.
26. 39%: BNPL users who leverage these services specifically for holiday purchases.
For retailers processing thousands of orders in peak season, Webgility automates accounting for every sale, fee and payout, ending the post-holiday reconciliation chaos. With real-time sync across all your sales channels and your accounting platform, you’ll close your books faster, maintain accurate inventory and gain the clarity you need to stay profitable when volumes rise and margins tighten.
Electronics and apparel dominate, but grocery and cosmetics show the strongest growth.
Holiday shopping season 2024 revealed clear category leaders in online sales:
27. $55.3 billion: Electronics online sales during the 2024 holiday season, up 8.8% YoY.
28. $45.6 billion: Apparel online sales during the 2024 holiday season, up 9.9% YoY.
29. $21.5 billion: Grocery category online sales in the 2024 holiday season, up 12.9% YoY - highest growth rate.
30. $7.7 billion: Cosmetics category sales in the 2024 holiday season, up 12.2% YoY.
31. $8.2 billion: Toys category sales in the 2024 holiday season, up 7.8% YoY.
32. 680%: Toys category sales increase on Black Friday 2024 vs. average October day.
33. 476%: Appliance sales increase on Black Friday 2024 vs. average day.
34. 334%: Electronics sales increase on Black Friday 2024 vs. average day.
35. 86%: of Thanksgiving-weekend shoppers bought gifts; the average gifts spent $235.
Three-quarters of consumers will use AI to shop this holiday season, is your business ready?
Artificial intelligence is no longer experimental; it's central to how consumers shop and how retailers sell:
36. +520%: The massive expected increase in retail site traffic coming directly from AI sources in 2025.
37. 75%: Percentage of consumers who plan to use AI to find deals and compare prices this season (2025).
38. 83%: Percentage of retailers who are now using AI agents for shopping assistance (2025).
39. 67%: Percentage of consumers who plan to use AI for gift ideas in 2025 (up from 54% in 2024).
40. 19%: Share of holiday 2024 purchases that were influenced by AI chat results and recommendations.
While AI is transforming the front-end shopping experience, Webgility brings that same intelligence to ecommerce back-office operations, automatically categorizing transactions, syncing orders to QuickBooks or Xero, and giving you real-time visibility into profitability.
Ecommerce businesses demonstrated huge success, as their merchants saw significant year-over-year sales growth during the main shopping weekend:
When researching deals, US consumers turn to Amazon (55%) and Google (49%) most often, followed by brand websites (26%) and review portals (23%).
41. $11.5B: (+24% YoY): Shopify merchants BFCM 2024 GMV.
42. $4.6M: Shopify peak: Per minute at 12:01 pm ET on Black Friday.
43. 76M+: Customers bought from Shopify brands during BFCM 2024.
44. 16%: Cross-border orders represented of all global orders during BFCM 2024.
45. +58%: Year-over-year growth in Shop Pay sales during BFCM 2024.
46. $74.4B: Global digital sales driven by Black Friday 2024.
Whether you sell on Amazon, Shopify, Walmart, or eBay, Webgility connects all your marketplaces to your accounting system so that you can track true profits, COGS, and fees automatically across every channel.
This year presents a paradox: while overall spending grows, individual shoppers are more cautious, especially younger generations who are cutting back significantly:
It’s a mixed picture this year; spending is rising overall, but younger shoppers are pulling back, prioritizing essentials over extras.
47. -5%: The projected drop in average holiday spend per consumer in 2025 (the first notable drop since 2020).
48. -23%: The projected drop in holiday spending for Gen Z, the sharpest of any generation.
49. 77%: Share of shoppers who expect higher prices in 2025.
50. 85%: Share of shoppers who say they're likely to abandon their carts due to frustration or indecision.
51. 45%: Percentage of consumers who plan to start holiday shopping before November.
Understanding these trends and stats helps ecommerce business owners anticipate demand, plan smarter, and respond faster to changing buyer behavior.
As we've seen, shoppers are using every tool available from generative AI to social commerce to find and buy your products. This creates unprecedented front-end opportunity, but it also fuels massive back-end chaos. Every new sales channel adds a new layer of complexity to your inventory, your order management, and, most importantly, your accounting.
While AI shapes the customer journey on the front end, Webgility is what will save you on the back end. It connects the dots by automatically syncing all your sales channels directly with your accounting, eliminating manual reconciliation and giving you precise, real-time clarity on your profitability.
Ready to prepare your business for the busiest season yet? Download our free ebook, “2025 Guide to Automated Ecommerce Ops,” to discover actionable strategies for automation, accounting accuracy, and smarter operations this season.
In 2025, holiday shopping is marked by early starts (many consumers begin before November) and shifting channels like mobile commerce and social / AI-driven discovery are rising rapidly.
AI is shaping holiday shopping through tools like chatbots, personalized gift suggestions and traffic driven by generative models. For example, shoppers are using AI to compare deals, generate gift ideas and find products via non-traditional discovery.
Brands should pay attention to: younger shoppers who prioritize value and mobile shopping; the importance of social proof and influence; and demographic segments more likely to spend early or shift categories. The key is to offer free shipping and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) to convert these cautious shoppers.